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SDCC just got more expensive for me as well. I may need to forgo the Jetfire sky striker now.

I can't even preorder Slave 1 just yet either.

Preorder costs nothing, and it doesn't ship for a month after SDCC, and you can always cancel later.

Originally Posted by El Chuxter

If there's anyone who's going to SDCC and wants to offset the price of the exclusives just a bit, and has no interest in the Bludgeon figure, I might be able to help.

Oh gee, that sounds like a great deal, thanks for the offer.

JT, I can't help but envision that sequence as something like this.

Wheeljack: "How do you feel, Bumblebee?"
Bumblebee: "I feel great! In fact, I feel like some sort of gold bug!"
Wheeljack: "I think maybe that should be your new name!"
Goldbug: "Um, yeah, dude, no. You ain't taking my name. I'm standing right here, for cryin' out loud. And this isn't like one of those crazy 'two Prowls' things, because I'm only obscure if you count finding freakin' Metroplex and indirectly killing damn Sixshot to be obscure, yo."

First off, is that a reference to Sh**piece?

Secondly, IDW Goldbug actually has a different face and hasn't been seen since his introduction.

Thirdly, um... how far behind are you on RID?

Originally Posted by figrin bran

Then again EE's SDCC line is a nightmare. Not Hasbro nightmarish but they don't have anywhere near the inventory that Hasbro does.

It's better than driving all over the city day after day hoping upon hope to find the hint of a figure that never sees the light of day though.

Originally Posted by Adam

It was quite a surprise for me. I had no interest in the SDCC Metroplex over the mainline one but after seeing it in person.. I really, really want one.

Wow, really? What about it sold you that hard?

I had a pretty good time at Botcon. The crowds were much lighter than last year. Good for those of us there, bad for the vendors and Fun Pub. It was great hanging out with JT and Bikerscout for a bit!

Yeah, I'm sure vendors and funpub couldn't have been happy with that volume, but that's the way it goes, next time bring in more exhibitor booths and don't put a convention in San Diego 3 weeks before the largest geek convention in the world in the same city, I guess.

It was a blast to hang out with you too. Did you end up getting haunted by the creepy painting overnight?

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Last issue I read ended with Starscream seeing a beat-up Megatron walking in from the wasteland. Unfortunately, it looks like the next volume isn't out until September or October (Amazon's estimates on IDW books are always squirrelly).

And, yeah, I figure someone, somewhere only wants the "classic" Joes and TF's in that set and won't have any interest in Bludgeon. Just wasn't sure if any of those someones were here or not.

The chrome on the thighs is really doing it for me. I dunno, just between that and someone I know going to SDCC that can get me one I was sold. I know a few people who may buy the little decoy guys off me so I can offset the cost a tiny bit.

Did you end up getting haunted by the creepy painting overnight?

Nooo, the towel covering her was pretty much a permanent fixture while we were there haha.

It's better than driving all over the city day after day hoping upon hope to find the hint of a figure that never sees the light of day though.

Or waiting on a TRU preorder for weeks and then finally receiving it and then not even opening it 9 months later?

But in all seriousness, you see what I'm getting at right? EE's booth has nowhere near the capacity that HTS' does and who knows just how many Soundwaves they'll have. 2 years ago I got lucky and got MP Rodimus on preview night but there was a MOTUC set Maradona and I wanted from them that they didn't get in yet. I don't think it arrived until Friday.

I'll still try my hardest to get it from them but I'm not overly optimistic. I'm not sure how strictly they enforce limits either.

Last issue I read ended with Starscream seeing a beat-up Megatron walking in from the wasteland. Unfortunately, it looks like the next volume isn't out until September or October (Amazon's estimates on IDW books are always squirrelly).

Oh wow, you are way behind. You really need to get into the floppies, waiting ANOTHER season for this book is not right.

And, yeah, I figure someone, somewhere only wants the "classic" Joes and TF's in that set and won't have any interest in Bludgeon. Just wasn't sure if any of those someones were here or not.

Keep on dreamin', you crazy dreamer.

Originally Posted by Adam

The chrome on the thighs is really doing it for me. I dunno, just between that and someone I know going to SDCC that can get me one I was sold. I know a few people who may buy the little decoy guys off me so I can offset the cost a tiny bit.

Ah, got ya.

Those decoy guys being shot in red and purple like little green army men really took the wind out of my sails, if you can make money off them, more power to ya.

Nooo, the towel covering her was pretty much a permanent fixture while we were there haha.

Awesome! That was too funny. Although similar decor, she wasn't in Bikerscout's room, he had like an old timey car and a drawing of a chair, far less creepy.

Originally Posted by figrin bran

Or waiting on a TRU preorder for weeks and then finally receiving it and then not even opening it 9 months later?

Yeah, everybody is busting chops on that one.

But in all seriousness, you see what I'm getting at right? EE's booth has nowhere near the capacity that HTS' does and who knows just how many Soundwaves they'll have. 2 years ago I got lucky and got MP Rodimus on preview night but there was a MOTUC set Maradona and I wanted from them that they didn't get in yet. I don't think it arrived until Friday.

I'll still try my hardest to get it from them but I'm not overly optimistic. I'm not sure how strictly they enforce limits either.

I do, and I know EE does that per-day allocation thing, but honestly, it's worth the risk.

Was there a stated limit? If not, we need to get Maradona's team-up going next week and strategize.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

So I finally got super annoyed with the face on Blitzwing being difficult to change. I tried to undo the screw again, that didn't help at all, so I removed the head - very easy as it slides right out the back of the neck - and unscrewed the head. The head design is weird, the top and bottom are part of the main housing while the "ear" panels fill in the middle, it's quite strange. Getting the right panel of the head was fairly easy, only things to watch out for are a small tab at the corner near the top, and a peg where it meets the left panel. Getting the left panel out is pretty difficult due to the same problem that caused this teardown in the first place. Basically, the faces are on an axle that juts from the left panel, the faces are bigger than the opening on the head so they have to be angled out, but the panel with the axle is restricting them. Ultimately, I just physically pushed the axle out of the faces' hubs while making sure it was clear of everything, took about a minute.

The reason the faces don't turn is because someone at the factory thought "hey, you know what would really work well here? If we left thick, gloppy, yellow paint that the part suffers just CAKING this axle, that'll make the toy fun, right? If we were so cheap that we didn't bother cleaning the part in any way and just jammed it in there haphazardly despite it costing next to nothing to clean? Hell, we'll clean other parts of the piece for clearance just to mess with their minds, but the ability to use that clearance will be nil thanks to this plan, that'd be great." Well, the thick gloppy paint comes off with a fingernail when you don't want it to, so mainly that's what I used to get it off, it scrapes off SUPER easily, and I used a flat-head screwdriver to clear the last edges.

After putting Blitzwing back together, the faces turn very easily, in fact almost too easily - I'd recommend leaving some paint here and there just to keep a pleasant amount of friction, you can test this by reinstalling the faces onto the axle outside of the head. They don't spin freely so you can't reenact the TF:Animated character's face-spinning in the show, but they move smoothly and freely, and the only restriction is when they catch on the head's interior walls thanks to more yellow paint, yet this is very minor compared to how it used to be.

All in all, this fix should take no more than 5 minutes and just a small screwdriver to enact.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I just followed your instructions and fixed mine. I think it took me more than five minutes to get the second head panel off because of all the excessive paint (and me not wanting to ruin the paint that needs to be there). It's also rather weird that the faces are separate pieces; I thought it would be something more akin to the old Man-E-Faces figure.

I just followed your instructions and fixed mine. I think it took me more than five minutes to get the second head panel off because of all the excessive paint (and me not wanting to ruin the paint that needs to be there). It's also rather weird that the faces are separate pieces; I thought it would be something more akin to the old Man-E-Faces figure.

Glad to hear you were able to do it. Sounds like yours had even worse paint lock than mine if it took that much effort, I wasn't seeing that concern when I did it, but I'm a little aggressive when I take TFs apart. My original plan was to oil the axle, boy was I surprised when it got free and was painted to hell.

The faces being separate pieces makes sense since each one has unique deco needs, the 2 black faces have different colors entirely and the gray face is... well, it's gray. But it is a very unusual way to do it. I think the reason it's a vertical rotating system, instead of horizontal like the original character in Animated as well as Man-E-Faces, is to get maximum face in the minimal space allotted for the design. If they had done another horizontal one a la Man-E in such a narrow head space, the faces would be a rotating triangle with its edges cut off for rotational clearance, and those edges being cut off would eat into the displayable face.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

Kylo Ren - came from Space Brooklyn, although he moved to Space Williamsburg before it was trendy.

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I'm not buying anything from that line and can't wait for it to go away, like back in the day how I felt about Beast Wars?

These takes on TF, as well as things like the Dinobots, are panders to the kid audience - which is fine. This is a kid brand.

But it was the Alternators and Masterpieces that brought me back to TFs and now I pick up realistic movie figures, certain Classics and Generations.

I didn't do TFs Prime either, but I might not have minded it so much, I just wanted to resist it when another collection tried "going cute" with their line, as Star Wars fandom wound up bringing me to buy Clone Wars Animated (and really like it) as well as Galactic Heroes / Jedi Force stuff and I'm practicing more restraint nowadays while I hold my breath for some kind of realistic Masterpiece (NOT purple) take on Cyclonus and other personal wishlist items I don't think would be altogether unmarketable and poor sellers - like Hasbro estimates my desired Cliegg Lars SW figure wish to probably be.

But if Jocasta Nu did well for Brian's Toys, perhaps they'd look at Cliegg Lars with his hoverchair for 2014?

Bringing it back to topic, could Hasbro look into exclusives, or Takara-Tomy, and make such things as a MP / LC Cyclonus, or movie version Blackout?

BAD Pts Need:R5-C7 lf leg (x2), , R4-P44 right leg BAD Pts Offered For Trade: PM me - I have lots of parts now including BG-J38!. New Kyle Katarn is also available.

I enjoy it. I don't care for that every transformer series recently have kids as the human partners, but it's decent. I really like the fact that TF: Prime is darker than most transformers series.

Nowhere in your incoherent ramblings did you come anywhere close to the answer. Thanks to you, everyone in this room is now stupider having heard you. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. -Billy Madison-